Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier been blamed for not meeting the media even two years after assuming office. A politician with a serious image, he was also flayed for being unfriendly to the media. The deluge in August 2018 wholly changed this perspective. The CM began briefing the media on a daily basis every morning and evening in the Secretariat press room. The same was repeated in August 2019 when the state once again witnessed ravaging floods.
By this time, Pinarayi Vijayan had undone the image of a politician who was aggressive to the media. Fast forward to today, while the whole world is grappling with COVID-19, he has completed 100 media briefings on the pandemic situation in the state. His 100th briefing was on Saturday.
The first COVID-19 case in the country was reported in Kerala on January 30. The patient was a student who had returned from Wuhan University in China. Two more cases were soon reported – again students from the same university who had come back home. All of them recovered and were discharged in two weeks’ time.
On March 8, the state confronted the alarming news of five news cases. State Health Minister KK Shailaja began media briefings on a daily basis. She was even accused by the Opposition Congress for being a ‘media maniac’.
Ramesh Chennithala (left) and KK Shailaja
On March 16, Pinarayi Vijayan took over the media briefing from Shailaja, who is his party CPI(M) colleague as well. Since then, the CM has been meeting the media on an almost daily basis at 6 pm, though it was advanced to 5 pm on certain days. On some occasions, he has done the briefing six days a week. And yes, he even smiles during the briefings.
In the past 177 days, the CM has completed 100 press meets, perhaps a rare record and unprecedented in the history of the country.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the state was less than 10 in the initial days when Pinarayi began the customary media briefing.
Pinarayi offers detailed updates to the public on fresh cases in the state, and the measures taken by his government to flatten the curve while emphasising the need to be cautious and never giving up vigil. In his 40-minute to one-hour-long sessions, he covers several details with regard to COVID-19 and life in the times of a pandemic. He announces the number of positive cases in the day as well as district-wise data on samples tested and persons isolated.
On March 23, Pinarayi announced that the state will go into a complete lockdown from the next day. It was on March 24 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a countrywide lockdown for 21 days as well.
During the press meets conducted during the lockdown, he mentioned that street dogs needed to be fed, and how the state would ensure that there was no hindrance in transporting food for elephants.
On March 28, he said that people should take care of stray dogs: “All the shops have closed. Public places have come to a standstill. It is not just humans but stray dogs too that used these spaces. They are now roaming without food. If they don’t get food, they may turn violent. We should take care of them,” he had said.
On April 1, after the Tablighi Jamaat meeting emerged as an epicentre of the coronavirus infection and even caused hate messages to be spread, the CM warned that the virus is not going to look at a person’s religion before infecting them and that this was not the time to embark on a communal mission.
On May 20, when the lockdown restrictions began to ease, he said that there should not be any hate campaign against NRIs who returned home.
On July 6, the press meet was streamed through Facebook Live. The very next day, it was conducted through BigBlueButton, an open source web conferencing platform, with the CM sitting at Cliff House, his official residence.
On July 11, he revealed the shocking statistics that 66 children and teenagers under the age of 18 have died by suicide in Kerala since March 25. He announced the formation of a special committee headed by Director General of Police R Sreelekha to study the issue. ‘Chiri’, an initiative by student police cadets to provide counselling and other services, was also announced. On March 19, he had announced a financial package worth Rs 20,000 crore, which was to be used for health packages, loan assistance, welfare pensions, free food grain, etc.
From July 13 onwards, media persons began sitting in the PR Chamber in the Secretariat while the CM continued to sign in from Cliff House. While conducting press meets at the Secretariat, he would be flanked by KK Shailaja, Revenue Minister E Chandrasekhar and the Chief Secretary. Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Tom Jose retired and was succeeded by Vishwas Mehta.
Meanwhile, on June 15, Pinarayi’s daughter Veena got married to Democratic Youth Federation of India leader Mohammed Riyas.
Over the last few months, the state witnessed not just the pandemic. Pinarayi faced the heat on a slew of issues – from the Spinklr controversy to the gold smuggling case. The government was accused of breaching the privacy of 1.75 lakh people under quarantine in the state by striking a deal with US-based tech firm Sprinklr.
This was followed by the BevQ app row. BevQ was developed to sell liquor as the state-run Beverages Corporation outlets were closed down due to the lockdown. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala asked the state government to publish details regarding the selection of Fair Code, a Kochi-based startup, to develop the app and the cost-sharing deal between the company and Bevco.
The CM faced criticism for making COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory for NRIs. He also had to explain in detail the dispute over the proposed Sabarimala Greenfield airport, after Chennithala called the government a ‘Consultancy Raj’ saying that the appointment of a US headquartered firm – Louis Berger – as the consultant was in violation of norms. The biggest row, however, was the gold smuggling incident through UAE Consulate baggage at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. Fingers were pointed at Pinarayi for his former Principal Secretary M Sivasankar’s links to the key accused in the case.
For three days from August 8, the briefings witnessed heated arguments between media persons and the CM regarding the coverage of the gold smuggling case, after he blamed some media outlets for twisting facts.
In the last week of August, the Opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the LDF government in a one-day assembly session, but was defeated by 87 to 40 votes.
The ‘scary’ August this year affected Kerala with the horrifying landslide in Idukki’s Pettimudi on August 7, killing 65 people.
While Pinarayi visited the landslide spot on August 13, he was criticised for delaying the visit. In a press conference conducted on the same day in Pettimudi, he explained the difficulty in reaching the spot.
The Pettimudi disaster was followed by the tragic air crash at the Kozhikode International airport at Karipur in Malappuram, in a gap of hours on August 7. Nineteen people lost their lives in the accident. Pinarayi and a team of ministers visited the spot the next day. Back in Thiruvananthapuram on the same day, he held the COVID-19 briefing too.
Pinarayi and the ministers had to go on quarantine following Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan and Superintendent of Police U Abdul Karim testing positive on August 14. The CM’s office said that the press meets will be halted temporarily while the CM was in quarantine. However, a rapid antigen test done the same day for him returned negative.
He resumed the media briefing on August 27.